Brent Black Panama Hats

The Panama Hat Company of the Pacific

Congratulations!
You have found the Panama Hats Home Page and the world’s finest Panama hats. On this site, you can shop for a fine Panama hat, see how Panama hats are made, find out how to measure your head size, discover why one Panama hat costs more than another, and much more. For more than 20 years my specialty, and passion, has been the legendary Montecristi Panama hat. From jungle plant to finished style, each hat requires at least a hundred hours of skilled hand work to create. The very finest can take almost a thousand hours. I hope you will enjoy the site.

You will be worshipped.

As seen in the Robb Report.

Saving the Art of Montecristi Panama Hats

We exist to prevent the extinction of a fine art.

The business was created in 1988 with the specific goal to prevent the impending extinction of the art of fine hat weaving in Montecristi. How do we save the art of fine hat weaving? Simple. Buy as many hats as possible, raise market prices so weavers earn enough to make weaving a desirable way to make a living.

To save the art, first we must save the artists.

We have been working, sometimes successfully, for more than 20 years to improve quality of life for the weavers. When we have the funding, we provide free medical care, prescription medications, blood tests, eye exams, even food. Now, we are building a water purification and storage system.

The weavers never met a buyer like me.

I don’t try to beat them or cheat them, like they’re used to from the local buyers. I treat the weavers like my teammates, not my adversaries. They make what I sell. I want them to keep weaving. I pay higher prices, give them free supplies, even free groceries. An entertaining example:

I noticed his eyes don’t agree with each other. I worried he couldn’t learn to read, that kids would tease him. We got him to an optometrist and into a series of corrective lenses. Here’s how it happened.